MOSCOW, Sept 7 — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong on Thursday that he was planning to visit China before the end of the year, reported Sputnik.
Albanese and Liu met on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, which is taking place in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
“I look forward to visiting China later this year to mark the 50th anniversary of prime minister (Gough) Whitlam’s historic visit,” the SBS News broadcaster quoted Albanese as saying.
Liu believes the improvement in Australia-China relations will be “welcomed by all sectors of both countries and the international community”, the broadcaster said.
The last Australian prime minister to visit China was Malcolm Turnbull, who travelled to the country in 2016, according to the report.
On Feb 6, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao spoke with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell in their first bilateral meeting since 2019, which was widely interpreted as a sign that both sides wanted to improve relations.
On March 15, China lifted a ban on Australian coal that was set to expire at the end of 2020. On April 11, Canberra suspended its World Trade Organisation case against Beijing after a deal was reached on Australian barley.
Despite possible improvements in Australian-Chinese relations, the countries’ defence interests keep colliding. In March, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said claims by the AUKUS (Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom) countries that they would adhere to the principles of nuclear non-proliferation were hypocritical as Australia planned to build a nuclear submarine fleet. Beijing added that the bloc kept following a misguided and dangerous path, putting its own geopolitical goals ahead of the concerns of the international community.
— Bernama-Sputnik
